Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, I request the information set out below relating to your council’s:
• Environmental Health
• Trading Standards
• Licensing
• Building Control
• Private Sector Housing
• Planning
The purpose of this request is comparative benchmarking of staffing levels, management structures, organisational layering and remuneration across regulatory services and planning, together with a more detailed, service specific assessment of Environmental Health as a statutory function. Where services are delivered differently or combined, please provide the closest equivalent information.
This request is structured, factual and limited to support analysis and minimise officer time. Please provide data for the financial year 2025/26.
Definitions (apply throughout)
• Frontline staff: Officers undertaking statutory operational duties
• Management posts: Staff with formal line management responsibility for other employees
• Management layers: Number of reporting tiers between a frontline officer and the Chief Executive (excluding the CE)
• FTE: Full time equivalent
PART 1 – Comparative Overview of Regulatory Services
This section is intended to allow like for like comparison across regulatory services.
Name of Authority:
1. Staffing and Management Structure
Please complete the table below.
Service Total FTE Frontline FTE Management FTE Management Layers (Frontline → CE) Directorate / Department
Environmental Health
Trading Standards
Licensing
Building Control
Private Sector Housing
Planning
Where available, please also provide a current organogram (or equivalent) showing management levels for each service.
2. Remuneration – High Level Published Scales
For each service, please provide published salary scales, grade ranges (not individual salaries).
Service Technical Officer Practitioner / Officer (£) Senior Practitioner Team Leader / Principal Range (£) Head of Service Range (£) Who does the head of Service reports to (role title only)
Environmental Health
Trading Standards
Licensing
Building Control
Private Sector Housing
Planning
Please state whether market supplements, recruitment/retention payments or other salary enhancements are paid in any of the above services.
PART 2 – Environmental Health Detailed Benchmarking
This section focuses specifically on Environmental Health (not including Licensing or PSH if part of overall EH service), recognising its statutory scope, external regulatory framework and workload profile.
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4. Environmental Health – Staffing Breakdown (by Discipline)
To support benchmarking of how Environmental Health resources are deployed across statutory functions, please provide a breakdown of current FTE staffing by discipline/team.
Where officers work across more than one area, please allocate FTE on a best estimate basis.
4a. Staffing by Discipline
Environmental Health Discipline / Team Frontline FTE Management FTE Total FTE
Food Hygiene & Safety
Health & Safety at Work
Environmental Protection (e.g. noise, pollution, nuisance)
Public Protection (pests,waste,neighbour issues)
Other Environmental Health functions (please specify)
Total Environmental Health
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4b. Overall Environmental Health Staffing Summary
Role Type FTE
Total Environmental Health staff
Qualified Environmental Health Officers
Technical officers
Management posts
Administrative / support staff
Vacant posts (FTE)
5. Environmental Health – Financial Information
Metric Value (£)
Gross Environmental Health budget
Net Environmental Health budget
Market Supplement Offered
Car allowance (not mileage)
Total staffing costs (including on costs)
Agency / temporary staff expenditure
Income generated from Primary Authority activity
Total income generated by Environmental Health
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6. Environmental Health – Key Activity Volumes
Please provide annual totals.
Activity Volume
Residential population served
Total food premises in area
Food hygiene inspections completed
No. of food ‘Approved’ premises
Number of Primary Authority partnerships
Statutory nuisance complaints received
RIDDOR notifications received
Health & safety interventions
Statutory notices served – food
Statutory notices served – health & safety
Statutory notices served - nuisance
Other statutory notices
Emergency Prohibition Notices
Voluntary food closures
Prosecutions undertaken
Total service requests / complaints received
Corporate complaints about the EH service (as recorded through your corporate complaints process)